1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to billing for telecommunications services, and more particularly, to a system and method for generating call disposition messages.
2. Background Information
Callingz cards allow telephone calls to be billed to accounts which man be unrelated to home or business telephone accounts. Before a card call is connected. the card number must be validated in order to ensure proper billing and prevent fraud. When card calls are placed within the telecommunications network of the telephone system which issued the card, i.e. the card issuer network (CIN), the card issuer has control over the validation process. When calls are placed through other networks, validation is more difficult. In general. the network which accepts use of the card, i.e. the card acceptor network (CAN), cannot itself validate a card issued by a CIN. Validation must be performed by the CIN. Therefore, the card number must be communicated from the CAN to the CIN for validation and the results of the validation process must be communicated back from the CIN to the CAN. The CAN connects the call if validation was successful and terminates the call if validation failed. If the CIN requests it, the CAN will then send to the CIN a call disposition message (CDM). This validation process and the associated messages are in accordance with the protocol set forth is ITU-T Recommendation E. 113 "Validatioin Procedures for the International Telecommunications Charge Card Service".
Fraudulent use of calling cards is a problem of increasing proportion. Telephone service providers have instituted a variety of measures to deal with such fraud. Many of these measures depend upon timely receipt of calling card usage information by the card issuer. The normal billing process does not provide information in a timely manner. The CDM is intended to provide sufficient call activity information in a timely manner.
A problem arises when a CDM must be generated. A typical billing system of a telecommunications network cannot generate the information needed to create the CDM sufficiently quickly. This may be because the information is not readily available or because the information is not collected in one location. A typical billing system may take hours or even days to generate a CDM. A need exists for information to be generated and collected with improved performance in order to create the CDM in a timely manner.